Thursday, November 29, 2012

The new Corregidor weather station

We’re sure that many of you have used or heard the phrase,
“If you don’t like the weather, wait ten minutes.”Having lived most of our lives where this is
often true, (Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan,) we have had to adapt to life
in the Philippines where the weather tomorrow will most often be virtually
identical to today.Usually, dry season
is sunny most of the time, and when we get clouds they appear and disappear at
similar times day after day.During
rainy season the rains are fairly predictable.Only during storm patterns – LPAs, tropical storms, and typhoons, which predominantly
occur during rainy season – does the weather become much less predictable.

Soon after our arrival in October, 2008, we hunted and
hunted for a rain gauge, asking our friend Leslie Murray, a long-time Metro
Manila resident, for advice.The best we
found was a laboratory beaker in the student section of National Bookstore, so
we bought a cheap plastic rain gauge during our first extended visit to the
States – July/August 2009.Frankly, we
were quite surprised that we couldn’t find a rain gauge in a country where rain
is so prevalent.

Upon our return, we ‘planted’ it behind the house during the
remainder of rainy season, the only rain gauge on the island.We discovered that Metro Manila can
experience significantly different amounts of rain from Corregidor, despite
being only 25 miles away.For example,
Typhoon Ondoy dropped a record 16.7 inches of rain in Metro Manila in a 12-hour
period, whereas we only received five inches during that same time period.In our experience, Corregidor receives the
majority of its rain during the night, soon after sunset and before or soon
after sunrise, while we are told that rain begins in Manila much more commonly around
four in the afternoon during rainy season.

Having helped us to look for a rain gauge, our friend Leslie
was well aware of our interest in the island’s weather. About a year and a half
ago, she suggested to her friend, Antonia Loyzaga, the Executive Director of
the Manila Observatory, that they consider putting an Automated Weather Station
(AWS) on Corregidor as part of the Metro Weather Project.On Wednesday, November 28, that suggestion
became a reality.

The participating partners, Chevron, Globe Telecom, Metro
Manila Development Authority (MMDA), the Manila Observatory, and the Ateneo de
Manila University, held an official launch at Corregidor’s Topside.Sun Cruises did the setup and served a buffet
lunch.In attendance were such honorables
as Former Ambassador Juan Rocha, Corregidor Foundation, Inc. Executive Director
Artemio Matibag, Filipino-American Memorial Endowment Vice President Leslie
Murray, and Fr. Jose Ramon Villarin, President of Ateneo University. Guest
speakers included representatives of the partners and above mentioned
organizations, as well as the Honorable Harry K. Thomas, Jr., United States
Ambassador to the Philippines.We were
honored to be mentioned as having unintentionally sparked the idea of setting
up this particular weather station.Also,
Ambassador Thomas took the time to praise our book about Steve’s father, saying
that he had read it and that HONOR, COURAGE,
FAITH: A Corregidor Story was “a labor of love.”

Ironically, most of you, who do not live on Corregidor, will
have 24/7 access to the website.So you can
have a better idea of the exact conditions at any moment than we who live here
but have very limited access to the internet.Such are the wonders and woes of modern technology!

Now for some basic facts from the press release provided at
the launch ceremony:

There are 30 AWS locations in Metro Manila.The stations are roughly five kilometers
(three miles) apart.They provide free
and near-real-time weather data that can be used to prepare for severe weather
conditions such as typhoons, heavy rainfall and flooding.It has a link app with MMDA to assist drivers
in plotting alternate routes when they must be on the roadways during heavy
rains.

Almost all of the weather stations are at Chevron service
stations.Data is transmitted via the
Globe Telecom network.Manila
Observatory introduced the concept and provides technical and scientific
support.Ateneo University assists in
research in the areas of climate change and disaster risk reduction.

Corregidor’s station, although apart from Metro Manila, will
be especially important in that “1) It will provide the only source of weather
information for the continued conservation of the island’s ecosystem,
commemorating the long-history of the friendship between the Philippines and the
United States of America; and, 2) It will provide the first source of
information on extreme weather which may be approaching Metro Manila from the
West Philippine Sea.”We see this second
point as being particularly significant since the prevailing weather travels
from southwest to northeast during the rainy season, putting Corregidor
squarely in the path of weather headed for Manila.

For the near future the weather station will be located at
the Corregidor Inn.Soon it is to be
relocated to its permanent location on one of the towers on Topside, in
conjunction with equipment from Globe Telecom.

To access Metro Weather, go to www.metroweather.com.ph.Station sites can be clicked to view the
graphs for a particular location.By
default, the maps for rainfall are shown.However, radio buttons on the top of the page enable the selection of
map views for rainfall, and minimum, average, and maximum temperatures.

On another topic, last weekend Corregidor received a visit
from Tess Xerez-Burgos Loanzon and her family.Tess is the daughter of former Corregidor Foundation, Inc. Executive
Director Col. Alfredo Xerez-Burgos.We
wish that we would have been able to spend more time with them than the brief meet-and-greet
on the North Dock.Maybe next time.We received a post-trip email from Tess stating
how much they enjoyed their day, and how pleased she was to see island
personnel who knew her father and to see the island so well maintained by the
continued efforts of the Corregidor Foundation.

1 comment:

I was just at Corregidor Island last month (Saturday, Novermber 24th), which it was a very educational, inspriational, and spiritual experience! Thanks for sharing, your blog has been enlightening to read and it was an honor meeting you in person after meeting your friends (missionaries from Canada) on the boat ride from Manila. God bless and Maligayang Pasko!

About Me

We retired in our mid-50's and moved to Corregidor, a WWII battlesite in the Philippines. Steve's father Walter fought and was captured there by the Japanese, but survived the war. Steve wrote a book about his father, "HONOR, COURAGE, FAITH: A Corregidor Story," which is available in paperback in the Philippines, and on Amazon Kindle worldwide.
Steve and Marcia loved to entertain guests on Corregidor and take them to out-of-the-way places on the island. They also host tours for Valor Tours, LTD of San Francisco.